Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

An American author of award winning mystery fiction, Julie Hyzy has thrilled book lovers with her three series of novels (Alex St James, the White House Chef Mystery series, and the Manor House Mystery series) and a few other singular books. She has also written smaller works under two pseudonyms: N.C. Hyzy and S.F Hyzy. Despite her lack of any personal experience as an investigator or executive chef, she focuses the majority of her writing around three female main characters: Alex St James (investigator), Grace Wheaton (amateur sleuth in the Manor House Mysteries), and Olivia Paras (executive chef in the White House Chef Mysteries). As a little girl, Julie wrote her own mystery stories and made up her own newspaper, which her dad helped her to sell around the neighborhood. Julie fell in love with science fiction when her eighth-grade teacher gave her a copy of The October Country by Ray Bradbury. As an adult, she then tried her hand at writing science fiction but rekindled her love of mysteries becoming the mainstay of her writing career.

Julie Hyzy began her work career as hot dog stand “chef” making hot dogs, burgers, and chopping up tear-rendering onions. However, wanting to showcase her potential as a singer, she moved from hot dogs and onions to become a singing waitress at her local Farrell’s Ice Cream parlor. She continued her love of the stage appearing in community theater projects and television commercials. Attending college at Loyola University in Chicago, she was accepted into the Delta Sigma Pi Chapter at Loyola University as a female brother making her one of the first women to achieve this honor. Julie’s business marketing degree took her into the banking industry, middle management, and financial management. However, her love of and passion for writing took over full time at the turn of this millennium. She began with short stories, earning praise from her publisher and having several of her short Star Trek science fiction stories published. After that success, a friend suggested she try writing a novel which turned into her first manuscript and novel, Artistic License. Her experiences and travels provide her literary talent with exceptional material earning her several literary awards including two Anthony Awards, a Barry Award, and two Lovey Awards. Julie Hyzy and her family have remained living in the Chicago area.

Julie caught the novel writing bug and embarked on the Alex St James mystery series. As she achieved greater acclaim, Marty Greenberg (founder/owner of Tekno Books publishing), suggested she write about the White House’s first female executive chef. While only having semi-formal “chef” experience with hot dogs and onions, she agreed and created the White House Mysteries series. She personifies the main character in this series, Olivia Paras (known as Ollie), as a confident, smart-alecky, and fast quipping chef with an improvingly optimistic view of the world. While preparing the President’s meals, State dinners, and giving tours to foreign chefs Ollie manages to have a personal life, learns of various murderous plots, and helps to solve the mysteries occurring in and around the White House. In the Manor House Mystery series, Grace Wheaton, the curator and manager of the novel series’ Marshfield Manor, moonlights as a self-professed investigator helping solve the crimes occurring in and around the manor house. Grace’s less confident character differs from that of Ollie due to a dysfunctional family upbringing and several poor romantic relationships. Each of Julie’s characters has a polite and helpful persona, like the author, but enjoys more youthful ages and quick-wittedness, unlike the author.

The first book of Julie Hyzy’s White House Chef Mysteries series, State of the Onion, appeared on bookshelves in January 2008. She introduced her readers to Ollie Paras, an Assistant Chef in the White House kitchen vying for the prestigious job as White House Executive Chef. Motivated and driven, Ollie works hard at her job and competes with her nemesis for promotion. Distracting her from her focus, a highly trained assassin infiltrates the White House through the kitchen. Luckily, Ollie hits the intruder with a frying pan doing something not even the Secret Service nor the White House sniper guards could do. A plot to assassinate the President unveils from the captured intruder and Ollie becomes witness to a murder. She then feels conflicted among working hard to attain her dream job, maintain her romantic relationship with her Secret Service boyfriend, and help solve the mysterious assassination plot. Seemingly an irresponsible character, Ollie appears an unlikeable person making the reader feel more sympathetic to her opposing assassination characters. State of the Onion remains a well-written first novel with a believable and intriguing plot. Julie earned a 2009 Anthony Award, a 2009 Barry Award (Best Paperback Original), and a 2009 Lovey Award (Best Traditional Mystery) for this novel.

The second book in Julie Hyzy’sManor House Mysteries series, Grace Interrupted, stands by itself; the reader does need to read the first novel, Grace Under Pressure, to understand the storyline or figure out the characters. Grace Wheaton, the newly appointed curator and manager of Marshfield Manor and amateur sleuth, finds herself embroiled in a murder mystery during a Civil War reenactment occurring on the Manor grounds. One of the reenactors, who had just left his wife at the altar, earns the wrath of two angry women and he also starts a brawl with Davey Embers, a groundskeeper for the Manor and brother of Jack Embers who Grace fancies. Later, the reenactor winds up dead and the Embers’ brothers look like the prime suspects. Grace must find out all she can, with the help of her nosy assistant Frances, to keep her man out of jail before the campers finish their reenactment. The story starts out slow but gradually picks up speed to the point where the reader will not want to put it down. Despite the book not having too many plot twists, the number of potential suspects makes guessing the identity of the murderer challenging. Julie Hyzy has written all her characters from a believable perspective so the reader can picture them fully and understand what they do and why they do it. While not a literary award earner, Grace Interrupted presents a likable story well worthy of the time to read it.

Rather than announce an upcoming book, we're paying tribute to our most popular author of the year from a survey we did. That author is Louise Penny, who writes the Inspector Gamache books. Trust me when I say this - this is a tremendous serious about a Chief Inspector in Quebec. Buy it for yourself, buy it as a gift - but get the first book in the series, Still Life and see why it's our most popular book series. Read more about it.

Recommendations

Every 2 weeks we send out an e-mail with 6-8 Book Recommendations. We'll base this on various factors for example "If you like Jack Reacher..." or "If you like short stories in the horror genre". Insert your e-mail below to start getting these recommendations.

MISSING A BOOK?

I do my best to make sure the book lists are complete and current, but due to human or machine error while attempting to keep 3000+ authors up to date, the occasional book can be missed or will be listed under an alternate title. If you see one missing just send me an e-mail below. Thanks!

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Featured Series

Our character of the month is Inspector Armand Gamache. We know people are looking for gifts for others this time of year - so make it easy. Get someone hooked on our most popular series! Seriously I don't mean to beat a dead horse but try this series out!

Featured Author

Our author of the month is the Canadian author Louise Penny We’re paying tribute to Louise this month. Her Gamache series is simply incredible and each book just gets better. If you haven’t read it yet – start now!

Did You Know…

Besides short story and novel writing, Clive Barker has been actively involved in screenwriting and film production. His early screenplays include Underworldand Rawhead Rex but after witnessing the disappointing picturization of his work, Barker went on to discover the art of filmmaking on his own. He produced The Forbidden and Salome to lukewarm response. He also directed several of the stories from The Book of Blood. Two of his acclaimed major motion pictures include Candyman series and the Hellraiser.